In search of a critical habitat concept for woodland caribou, boreal population

A hierarchical approach to critical habitat identification has been proposed in the draft National Recovery Strategy for the Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), Boreal Population. This approach proposes that critical habitat for boreal caribou be identified as equivalent with caribou ranges and their composite range components, and that it be consistent with the biological needs of a wild, self-sustaining local population of woodland caribou. These components include seasonal ranges, high use areas and calving sites, each of which provide for important ecological functions and are subject to specific risks from human development activities. Protection of critical habitat is accomplished through management of the amount and type of human developments and potential natural disturbances, not by prohibiting all activity. This approach to critical habitat sets the stage for management and monitoring of habitat at spatial and temporal scales appropriate for conservation of a wide ranging species such as woodland caribou

Fusing Information in a 3D Chart-of-the-Future Display

The Data Visualization Research Lab at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping is investigating how three-dimensional navigational displays can most effectively be constructed. This effort is progressing along multiple paths and is implemented in the GeoNav3D system, a 3D chart-of-the-future research prototype. We present two lines of investigation here. First, we explore how tide, depth, and planning information can be combined (fused) into a single view, in order to give the user a more realistic picture of effective water depths. In the GeoNav3D system, 3D shaded bathymetry, coded for color depth, is used to display navigable areas. As in ENC displays, different colors are used to easily identify areas that are safe, areas where under-keel clearance is minimal, and areas where depths are too shallow. Real-time or model-generated tide information is taken into account in dynamically color-coding the depths. One advantage to using a continuous bathymetric model, versus discrete depth areas, is that the model can be continuously adjusted for water level. This concept is also extended for planning purposes by displaying the color-coded depths along a proposed corridor at the expected time of reaching each point. In our second line of investigation, we explore mechanisms for linking information from multiple 3D views into a coherent whole. In GeoNav3D, it is possible to create a variety of plan and perspective views, and these views can be attached to moving reference frames. This provides not only semi-static views such as from-the-bridge and under-keel along-track profile views, but also more dynamic, interactive views. These views are linked through visual devices that allow the fusion of information from among the views. We present several such devices and show how they highlight relevant details and help to minimize user confusion. Investigation into the utility of various linked views for aiding realsituation decision-making is ongoin

GeoZui3D: Data Fusion for Interpreting Oceanographic Data

GeoZui3D stands for Geographic Zooming User Interface. It is a new visualization software system designed for interpreting multiple sources of 3D data. The system supports gridded terrain models, triangular meshes, curtain plots, and a number of other display objects. A novel center of workspace interaction method unifies a number of aspects of the interface. It creates a simple viewpoint control method, it helps link multiple views, and is ideal for stereoscopic viewing. GeoZui3D has a number of features to support real-time input. Through a CORBA interface external entities can influence the position and state of objects in the display. Extra windows can be attached to moving objects allowing for their position and data to be monitored. We describe the application of this system for heterogeneous data fusion, for multibeam QC and for ROV/AUV monitoring

Feedback in the Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/9): I. High-Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy of Winds from Super Star Clusters

We present high-resolution (R ~ 24,600) near-IR spectroscopy of the youngest super star clusters (SSCs) in the prototypical starburst merger, the Antennae Galaxies. These SSCs are young (3-7 Myr old) and massive (10^5 - 10^7 M_sun for a Kroupa IMF) and their spectra are characterized by broad, extended Br-gamma emission, so we refer to them as emission-line clusters (ELCs) to distinguish them from older SSCs. The Brgamma lines of most ELCs have supersonic widths (60-110 km/s FWHM) and non-Gaussian wings whose velocities exceed the clusters' escape velocities. This high-velocity unbound gas is flowing out in winds that are powered by the clusters' massive O and W-R stars over the course of at least several crossing times. The large sizes of some ELCs relative to those of older SSCs may be due to expansion caused by these outflows; many of the ELCs may not survive as bound stellar systems, but rather dissipate rapidly into the field population. The observed tendency of older ELCs to be more compact than young ones is consistent with the preferential survival of the most concentrated clusters at a given age.Comment: Accepted to Ap

Electronic Chart of the Future: The Hampton Roads Project

ECDIS is evolving from a two-dimensional static display of chart-related data to a decision support system capable of providing real-time or forecast information. While there may not be consensus on how this will occur, it is clear that to do this, ENC data and the shipboard display environment must incorporate both depth and time in an intuitively understandable way. Currently, we have the ability to conduct high-density hydrographic surveys capable of producing ENCs with decimeter contour intervals or depth areas. Yet, our existing systems and specifications do not provide for a full utilization of this capability. Ideally, a mariner should be able to benefit from detailed hydrographic data, coupled with both forecast and real-time water levels, and presented in a variety of perspectives. With this information mariners will be able to plan and carry out transits with the benefit of precisely determined and easily perceived underkeel, overhead, and lateral clearances. This paper describes a Hampton Roads Demonstration Project to investigate the challenges and opportunities of developing the “Electronic Chart of the Future.” In particular, a three-phase demonstration project is being planned: 1. Compile test datasets from existing and new hydrographic surveys using advanced data processing and compilation procedures developed at the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC); 2. Investigate innovative approaches being developed at the CCOM/JHC to produce an interactive time- and tide-aware navigation display, and to evaluate such a display on commercial and/or government vessels; 3. Integrate real-time/forecast water depth information and port information services transmitted via an AIS communications broadcast

Quaternion-based gesture recognition using wireless wearable motion capture sensors

This work presents the development and implementation of a unified multi-sensor human motion capture and gesture recognition system that can distinguish between and classify six different gestures. Data was collected from eleven participants using a subset of five wireless motion sensors (inertial measurement units) attached to their arms and upper body from a complete motion capture system. We compare Support Vector Machines and Artificial Neural Networks on the same dataset under two different scenarios and evaluate the results. Our study indicates that near perfect classification accuracies are achievable for small gestures and that the speed of classification is sufficient to allow interactivity. However, such accuracies are more difficult to obtain when a participant does not participate in training, indicating that more work needs to be done in this area to create a system that can be used by the general population

The Potential-Density Phase Shift Method for Determining the Corotation Radii in Spiral and Barred Galaxies

We have developed a new method for determining the corotation radii of density waves in disk galaxies, which makes use of the radial distribution of an azimuthal phase shift between the potential and density wave patterns. The approach originated from improved theoretical understandings of the relation between the morphology and kinematics of galaxies, and on the dynamical interaction between density waves and the basic-state disk stars which results in the secular evolution of disk galaxies. In this paper, we present the rationales behind the method, and the first application of it to several representative barred and grand-design spiral galaxies, using near-infrared images to trace the mass distributions, as well as to calculate the potential distributions used in the phase shift calculations. We compare our results with those from other existing methods for locating the corotations, and show that the new method both confirms the previously-established trends of bar-length dependence on galaxy morphological types, as well as provides new insights into the possible extent of bars in disk galaxies. Application of the method to a larger sample and the preliminary analysis of which show that the phase shift method is likely to be a generally-applicable, accurate, and essentially model-independent method for determining the pattern speeds and corotation radii of single or nested density wave patterns in galaxies. Other implications of this work are: most of the nearby bright disk galaxies appear to possess quasi-stationary spiral modes; that these density wave modes and the associated basic state of the galactic disk slowly transform over time; and that self-consistent N-particle systems contain physics not revealed by the passive orbit analysis approaches.Comment: 48 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

A Kinematic Link between Boxy Bulges, Stellar Bars, and Nuclear Activity in NGC 3079 & NGC 4388

We present direct kinematic evidence for bar streaming motions in two active galaxies with boxy stellar bulges. The Hawaii Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer was used on the Canada-France-Hawaii 3.6-m telescope and the University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope to derive the two-dimensional velocity field of the line-emitting gas in the disks of the Sc galaxy NGC 3079 and the Sb galaxy NGC 4388. In contrast to previous work based on long-slit data, the detection of the bar potential from the Fabry-Perot data does not rely on the existence of inner Lindblad resonances or strong bar-induced shocks. Simple kinematic models which approximate the intrinsic gas orbits as nonintersecting, inclined elliptical annuli that conserve angular momentum characterize the observed velocity fields. Box-shaped bulges in both NGC 3079 and NGC 4388 are confirmed using new near-infrared images to reduce dust obscuration. Morphological analysis of starlight in these galaxies is combined with the gas kinematics derived from the Fabry-Perot spectra to test evolutionary models of stellar bars that involve transitory boxy bulges, and to quantify the importance of such bars in fueling active nuclei. Our data support the evolutionary bar models, but fail to prove convincingly that the stellar bars in NGC 3079 and NGC 4388 directly trigger or sustain the nuclear activity. (abridged)Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures, Latex, requires aaspp4.sty. Accepted for the Astronomical Journal (November issue